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A ritual dramatizing of the exile of the Shekhinah is the ceremony of yom kippur katan, or Lesser Day of Atonement, as the Kabbalists called the day before the new moon, that was devoted to fasting and repentance. This particular day came to be widely celebrated; the name yom kippur katan was first used in Safed. This 'lessening of the moon' was interpreted by the Kabbalists as a symbol of the Shekhinah's exile. The Shekinah itself is the 'holy moon,' which has fallen from its high rank, been robbed of its light and sent into cosmic exile. Since then, exactly like the moon itself, it has shone only with reflected light. With the Talmudic explanation, which relates only to the description of the moon as the 'lesser light' in the first chapter of Genesis, the Kabbalists connected their knowledge of the changing phases of the moon, which seemed to indicate that until the Messianic redemption the moon (and the Shekhinah as well) would time and time again sink back into utter lightlessness. Only in redemption would the moon be restored to its original state, and in support of this belief a verse from Isaiah (30:26) was cited. In the meantime, no cosmic occurrence seemed to the Kabbalists to be more closely connected with the exile of all things, with the deficiency and the blemish inherent in all being, than this periodic lessening of the moon.
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